On January 1st, koontz1973 launched the Map Awards 2013. (Includes the note "Any map that comes out later will be moved over to next years awards (Baltic Crusades). Kingdom of Denmark and Istanbul are in from last year.") The complete results are here. Depressingly, the big winners were giant nightmare maps like Eurasia and King's Court II; maps I abhor playing because I want to be able to see the whole map on one screen and not have to constantly scroll around. Amazingly, some really nice maps like Copenhagen, Island of Doom, and Jakarta were completely shut out of the winner's circle, as was the Africa II reward map (okay, if I was completely consistent I would hate that oversized map too, but it's just so beautiful I'm willing to forgive its size; plus it has a really neat override bonus structure.).On January 16th DoomYoshi (of DoomYoshi Awards fame) commented with the following tally: Subject: Map Awards 2013 RESULTS

DoomYoshi wrote:Ok, I sorted the maps based on how many awards they won and some arbitrary point system. If you want to rank them in your own way (say, by counting ties as full score, or by reducing the best new mapmaker award) you can. As expected, Eurasia and KCII were neck and neck. Not counting the Map of the Year Award, Eurasia Mini was only 1 point behind KCII though. DoomYoshi Nominees Africa II and Island of Doom didn't get any awards. KCII was not nominated for a Yoshi, namely because I don't like it that much. I expect Baltic to crush every category next year (except Big Game maybe).

Total Awards Score (Third Place counts 2 points, Second Place Counts 4 Points, First Place Counts 6, a tie counts -1 points)Eurasia 25(5/4/0/1) 1st Place, Best Large Game Map; 1st Place, Team Game Map; 1st Place, Graphics; 3rd Place Tie, Gameplay; 1st Place, Best MapKing's Court II 21(5/1/4/0) 2nd Place, Best Large Game Map; 2nd Place, Team Game Map; 2nd Place Tie, Graphics; 1st Place, Gameplay; 2nd Place, Best MapEurasia Mini 16 (3/2/1/0) First Place, Best Small Game Map; Second Place, Best map for 1v1;1st Place, Ease of UseKnights 15(3/2/1/0)Second Place, Best Small Game Map; First Place, Best map for 1v1; 1st Place Tie, Most OriginalDark Continent 9 (4/0/2/2) Third Place Tie, Best Small Game Map; 2nd Place Tie, Graphics; 2nd Place Tie, Gameplay; 3rd Place, Best MapSalem's Switch 8(2/1/1/0) 2nd Place Tie, Gameplay; 1st Place Tie, Most OriginalTrench Warfare 7 (4/0/0/4) Third Place, Best map for 1v1; Third Place, Best Large Game Map; 3rd Place, Team Game Map; 3rd Place Tie, Most OriginalCuban Missile Crisis, 7(2/1/0/1) 3rd Place Tie, Most Original; 1st Place, Best New MapmakerNew Jersey 5(3/0/0/3)Third Place Tie, Best Small Game Map; 3rd Place, Ease of Use; 3rd Place, Best New MapmakerClassic Cities: London 5 (2/0/1/1) Third Place Tie, Best Small Game Map;2nd Place, Ease of UseKingdom of Denmark 5(2/0/1/1) Third Place Tie, Best Small Game Map; 2nd Place, Best New MapmakerPatch Wars 4 (1/0/1/0) 2nd Place, Most OriginalClassic Cities: Pot Mosbi 4 (2/0/0/2)3rd Place, Graphics; 3rd Place Tie, GameplayMagyarország (0)Istanbul (0)Classic Cities: Jakarta (0)Classic Cities: Sydney (0)Copenhagen (0)1982 (0)Rail Asia (0)Africa II - SOS Africa Reward Map (0)Island of Doom (0)

Interestingly, there are exactly nine maps that were shut out of the winners' circle, and by a lucky coincidence, the tournament format that I developed for the History of Nuclear War series and carried on to the Best of 2011 series is designed for nine maps! It' kismet!

Anyway, thanks to DoomYoshi for pointing out this coincidence and suggesting this tournament to me.

The Forgotten Nine

Maps: As listed in the genesis spoiler above, or the individual Phase spoiler below.

We will use Randomized Settings. Only two settings will not be used in this tournament: team games and freestyle. The round length will not vary from 24 hours and the round limit will not vary from 50. Other than that, you may see:

Standard, Terminator, or Assassin Game Types

Automatic or Manual Deployment

Escalating, Flat Rate, Nuclear or No Spoils

Chained, Adjacent, and Unlimited Forts

Fog or No Fog

Trench or No Trench

Two of the above will be randomized evenly:Escalating, Flat Rate, Nuclear or No Spoils (1/4 chance each)Fog or No Fog (1/2 chance each)

For the other settings, I will randomize with preference to the more popular choices:Standard, Terminator, or Assassin Game Types (1/2 Standard, 1/4 each for the others)Automatic or Manual Deployment (3/4 Automatic)Chained, Adjacent, and Unlimited Forts (1/2 Chained, 1/4 each for the others)Trench or No Trench (3/4 No Trench)

Eligibility: To play in this tournament, you must be premium, have a turns-taken record of 98% or better, at least 100 completed games, and be at least a PFC on sign-up.

Procedure: The format of this tourney will be much like the others in this series, but with some rule tweaks. The first nine phases will consist of multiplayer games. (One change, of course, is that they will not all be Standard.) In each of these phases, only the first player eliminated from each game is eliminated from the tournament. All others will continue to the next phase. As soon as all games in a phase have had one player eliminated, I will begin the next phase with the survivors. Winning these games will not influence the course of the tournament; only that first elimination is significant.

If the game is Assassin, the person Assassinated will count as the elimination, unless:

The game was won by someone assassinating the wrong target, in which case the offender will be the player eliminated, or

Someone deadbeat out before the end, in which case the deadbeat counts as the eliminee.

subrule b trumps subrule a

If the game is Standard or Terminator, the first person out counts as the eliminee.

If any game is won by either Map Victory Conditions or by Round Limit, and nobody has been killed yet, then the eliminee will be the player with the fewest troops at the end.

Since it is a premium-only tournament, losing premium status and failing to renew within a reasonable time results in elimination also..

In the Final phase, all remaining players will play simultaneously in nine multiplayer Terminator games. Note: Game Type will NOT be randomized in the Final Shootout, but all other settings will be. These games will be completed and winning them will count, as will the number of kills.

Phase 330 players in 5 groups will play 6-player games on the Africa II - SOS Africa Reward map. The first player eliminated in each game is out of the tournament. The remainder will go on to the next round.

Phase 910 players in 2 groups will play 5-player games on the Classic Cities: Jakarta map. The first player eliminated in each game is out of the tournament. The remainder will go on to the next round.

Phase 10: The Final shootout!In the final round, the eight remaining players will face off simultaneously on all nine maps used in the tournament thus far. These games will be Terminator, and players will score 1 point for each kill and two extra points for winning a game. The player who scores the most points in the final phase will win the tournament.Note: Game Type will NOT be randomized in the Final Shootout, but all other settings will be (following the same pattern as in previous rounds.)

In case of a tie, the following tiebreaking rules will be used1. Total wins in the Final Shootout.2. Total wins in the whole tournament.3. Total kills in the Final Shootout.4. Total kills in the whole tournament. (in that order, obviously.)

Mr_chopper and schiballs were tied with 3 wins each during the first eight phases. A best-of-three tiebreaker will be played. Schiballs has chosen Istanbul, Mr_chopper has chosen Copenhagen, and I have randomly selected Sydney for the third.

Randomization of settings will follow the same pattern as the main tournament.